Chargers have pulled into station at dysfunction junction

LT: Struggling team at must-win point

Chargers QB Philip Rivers passes to LaDainian Tomlinson in the first quarter against the New England Patriots on Jan. 20, 2008 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. New England won the playoff game, 21-12. <br><em>K.C. Alfred/Union-Tribune</em>
— K.C. Alfred/Union-Tribune

Chargers QB Philip Rivers passes to LaDainian Tomlinson in the first quarter against the New England Patriots on Jan. 20, 2008 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. New England won the playoff game, 21-12. K.C. Alfred/Union-Tribune
/ K.C. Alfred/Union-Tribune

Their nemesis, the team that embarrassed them last September and then ended their season in January, is coming to town.

Sadly, in a way, this Sunday night's prime-time matchup between the Chargers and Patriots has diminished in intrigue. It was to have been a meeting of AFC leaders, possible unbeatens, a postseason prequel.

But the Chargers have not been able to so far live up to the deafening hype. A loss on Sunday dropped them to 2-3. They just might be about to fall off a cliff.

Come to think of it, this game is more important than ever.

“We can't afford to go 2-4,” LaDainian Tomlinson said Monday, after a long flight home and a sleepless night trying to figure out what's wrong with his team. “There's too tough a road ahead. We can't keep on doing this and saying this. It's at a point where it's becoming a must win for us if we're going to do the things that we set out to do at the beginning of the year.”

For the second time in a season so young yet gone so bad, the Chargers figure they face a challenge to win or else.

“I can assure you we'll play a better game next week,” Shaun Phillips said in the visitors locker room in Miami. “Our backs are against the wall. We have to come out swinging. We have no choice.”

No matter what compliments they give their vanquishers, no matter how improved Carolina and Denver and Miami might be, the Chargers know they should have won each of the games they lost.

Their cries do not smack of panic, but neither are they denying their predicament.

“We didn't make it any easier on ourselves, but by no means have we lost the season,” Philip Rivers said. “But certainly urgency is at its highest level.

Monday, as they have for all of this unexpected start to 2008, the Chargers spoke with the calm of people experienced in crisis management. They were 2-3 last year as well – then 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4 and 5-5 before winning eight straight en route to the AFC Championship meeting with the Patriots.

“It allows us to know what it's going to take,” Rivers said. “We've been through it. Now that we did it we know what's ahead.”

Rivers also acknowledged that kind of thinking could be a trap.

And because it has been a sort of safety net, and perhaps because he senses his team is waiting for the magical turnaround, Norv Turner said yesterday he planned to issue a warning to his players this week.

“Everyone has to be very careful,” Turner said. “ I'm going to have our guys be careful about assuming because we did it last year it's just going to happen. If we're going to get back where we're capable of going, we've got to make it happen.”

The reality is the Chargers came home after a rout of Denver last October, feeling as if they had made great improvements in stopping a three-game slide and getting to 2-3. Their next two opponents were Oakland and Houston at home.

This year, they face New England and then go on a 10-day trip to Buffalo to play the Bills and London to play the New Orleans Saints.

That's a difficult stretch, and losing two of these three could mean the season is essentially finished by the time they get to their bye the first Sunday of November.

“We obviously have a very demanding schedule over the next period of time, and we're going to have to play better than we've played,” Turner said. “And we're going to have to be at our best for the next month before we get to our bye.”

Said Tomlinson: “Make no mistake about it. This is a critical time for our football team. These next four to five are very critical for us. To me this is going to determine what kind of a team we're going to be this year.”